Brittles

Brittles are a gingersnap cookie including bacon grease, a frugal ingredient during the Depression. "I love that grandma’s frugal use of bacon grease is considered trendy these days," reader Mindy Shaffer says. You can use shortening, though.

Preparation Instructions

Roll into balls the size of a walnut. Dip top in sugar. Place on greased cookie sheets or use “silpat” style silicone lined pans.

Bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.

Makes 4 dozen.

Frugal cook's bacon grease adds flavor

Editor’s note: Vintage recipes is the theme of this year’s 12 Days of Holiday Cookies. We asked readers to share their family recipes, and we picked some of the best.

Edith Ditzel, my maternal grandmother, was born in 1906 and raised in Oakfield.

We have traced her lineage back to Somersetshire, England; her maternal family came to this New World in 1630 on the ship John and Mary.

We know this because her family kept wonderful family records. They also took good care of their things, including books. I have her mother’s cookbook and two of her mother’s wedding presents: a candy dish and a vase.

My grandmother was a graduate of Geneseo Normal School. She taught elementary school for a few years before marrying and having children. My mother, the oldest of the three children, was born in 1930, so Grandma was raising children during the Depression.

Her husband, Phil Ditzel, was an insurance agent in Batavia. He provided adequately for the family as mom never commented on having lacked for anything. Even so, Grandma was always frugal.

I remember as a teenager — I was an avid baker by that time — having a laugh with her when people complained about how much it cost to buy a pie at the supermarket. We knew how much better and cheaper it was to bake it ourselves.

She was always a “scratch” cook. Even with the onset of convenience products, she never wavered. Her meals were nutritious and always included vegetables, from a roadside stand whenever possible.

Edith and my paternal grandmother, Rhena Ashley, also a great cook, became friends after my parents’ marriage and spent many evenings cooking together for their combined families. I have oodles of handed-down recipes from both of them.

I have worked in a food service setting most of my life and I attribute my love of cooking to both of them.

The Brittles are a gingersnap cookie. The use of bacon grease, I am sure, was a frugal use of ingredients during the Depression. I love that grandma’s frugal use of bacon grease is considered trendy these days.

I ate dozens of these growing up in the ’60s. She would substitute shortening if she didn’t have bacon grease. I didn’t like them nearly as much.

These cookies bake up with a nice round shape that belies their having been homemade. I believe this was an old recipe handed down from her family, thus the reference “walnut size.”

To make this most authentic, they should be cooled on a brown paper bag.